Local member argues Newstart payment needs to be raised

By Justine Frazier and Margaret Burin

As Families Minister Jenny Macklin has been challenged to live on $35 a day, many single parents are unsure about how they will make ends meet once their parenting payments are cut. The Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin argues the Newstart allowance needs to be raised.

"It's already been very hard to make ends meet and I think I'm very good at budgeting.

"I went for years without lots of things myself so I could provide for my son... I am getting in debt now, I used to have savings."

She says the cutbacks will make it difficult for people to attend TAFE course and to maintain tools - such as phone, internet and transport - that are required to apply for work and maintain a job.

Member for Page Janelle Saffin says she supports the policy but believes the Newstart payment needs to be increased.

"What I said to the minister, the treasurer, is Newstart is not enough to put people on," she says.

"I said, nobody can survive on that and with the added problems of us being in the country, with the transport and all the other issues that surround it, it's just too hard and it needs to be delayed."

Ms Saffin says she will take individual examples to parliament to argue that the payment needs to be raised.